DiFrancesco Says Experts Will Address Race Profiling

Published: May 24, 2001

NEWARK, May 23—
Declaring that New Jersey must rid itself of ''the scourge of racial profiling'' once and for all, Acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco said today that he would organize a conference of top law enforcement officials and community leaders to address the issue and would create a permanent institute on policing at Rutgers University.

''It is ugly and it is unjustifiable,'' Mr. DiFrancesco said of profiling at a ceremony at the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers, flanked by civil rights leaders and the state's highest-ranking law enforcement officials. ''This is a blight on the state and on the honest, hard-working men and women who dedicate their lives to protecting us. It cannot and it will not continue.''

New Jersey has been closely identified with racial profiling since April 1998, when two state troopers shot and wounded three unarmed black and Hispanic men on the New Jersey Turnpike, giving the issue national prominence. And state officials, who have been accused of responding too slowly to the problem, have struggled to come to grips with profiling, most recently in hearings of the State Senate Judiciary Committee.

''It's damaged our reputation, really, to a great extent across the country,'' Mr. DiFrancesco said, ''and it's damaged the reputation of our law enforcement officers.''

Mr. DiFrancesco, a Republican who will step down at the end of the year, praised his state colleagues today for their efforts to end profiling with such measures as police training reforms and the installation of video cameras on cruisers. But efforts must continue, he said, particularly given the growing minority and immigrant populations that have shown up in recent census figures.

In today's ceremony, he signed an executive order directing the state attorney general, John J. Farmer Jr., to convene the summit meeting within 120 days, and to invite community leaders, experts and law enforcement officials from New Jersey and other jurisdictions to take part. They will discuss various issues relating to profiling, including efforts being made in the state and elsewhere to eradicate the practice and otherwise enhance relations between the police and minorities.

Details of the meeting will be announced soon, officials said. Mr. Farmer said it would probably take place in the second week of September. He attended the signing with several of the likely participants, including the state police superintendent, Carson J. Dunbar Jr., and the Rev. Reginald T. Jackson, president of the New Jersey Black Ministers Council and one of the state's most visible critics of racial profiling.

Profiling may already be easing, Mr. Farmer said after the signing. Although he said during his testimony at the State Senate hearings last month that, based on data from last year, troopers appeared to still be stopping minority drivers at a disproportionate rate, Mr. Farmer said today that preliminary data for the first quarter of 2001 were ''very encouraging.'' He would not elaborate.

Mr. DiFrancesco said he expected a package of bills addressing racial profiling from the Senate committee's chairman, Senator William L. Gormley, in the coming weeks.

Helping to organize the summit will be the first task of the new policing institute, which Mr. Farmer said would have an annual budget of at least $500,000 -- all financed by the state. The institute will explore ways to form partnerships between law enforcement agencies and community groups to ensure the protection of both civil rights and public safety.

Senator Gormley said he would release a report on last month's racial profiling hearings no later than next week. It will include about a dozen recommendations for policies or legislation, including a civil rights bill, he said.

He welcomed the idea of a summit meeting and the policing institute. ''We've got to keep talking,'' he said.